Rhys Ernst

A writer/director who positions his filmmaking in a “New Trans Cinema” that complicates gender representation in narrative cinema and places queer and transgender characters within larger narratives. Ernst received his MFA in Film/ Video at CalArts in 2011 and a BA from Hampshire College in 2004. His MFA thesis filmThe Thing premiered at Sundance 2012 and his new film She Gone Rogue premiered at the 2012 “Made in LA” Los Angeles Biennial at the Hammer Museum. Past screening venues include Oberhausen, Chicago International FF, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and in Los Angeles at UCLA Hammer Museum, REDCAT, and LACE. He was a producer/editor for MTV Networks, associate producer for Masterclass (HBO), associate producer for Coming Out Stories (LOGO), and adjunct professor of video at Queens College (CUNY). He was named 2010 HBO Point Scholar, a 2012 Project: Involve Fellow, he received a 2003 Princess Grace Award Honorarium and a Gold Plaque at the 2003 Chicago International Film Festival, and was President of the Jury at Izmir Short film festival in Turkey. He recently completed directing a 35mm short adaptation of the life of transgender pioneer Vicki Marlene and is developing a new feature. He lives in Los Angeles.